Dr. Peter S Petralia, Artistic Director of Proto-type Theater, wonders what it means to be ‘British’ as he prepares for the Edinburgh Showcase.

When I moved to England in 2006, I didn’t expect to still be here five years later.

I thought I was coming to take a break from running my small theatre company which I started in NYC in the 90s, to reflect on my practice by doing an MA. My plan was to step off the production treadmill that I had been on for years (momentarily) and enjoy the comforts of the Ivory Tower of Academia.

Fate, luck or fortune, however, had other plans for me.

Five years later, I am not back in NYC where I assumed I would be, but instead sitting in the living room of the flat that I purchased in Manchester City Centre late last year, with my PhD certificate sitting in an envelope next to me and an email from the British Council asking for information about one of Proto-type’s projects.

It has been a busy five years: Proto-type have premiered three touring theatre shows, created one site-responsive video installation, developed a two-week long pervasive media performance that premiered in Mayfest Bristol, run a semi-regular artistic development programme called the Sunday Lunch Club, hosted a summer school, taught loads of workshops and managed to do it all on a shoestring.

Time flies, as they say, when you’re having fun.

When the British Council invited us to participate in Edinburgh Showcase 2011, we were first of all honoured but I immediately started to wonder what it means to be ‘British’.

As the American-born artistic director of Proto-type, I wondered whether my face (or more accurately, my accent) was the right one to be representing the company in Edinburgh. In a time when immigration rules are tightening it seems almost a political act to call myself British.

But of course, national identity is fluid and when I thought about the fact that I have committed myself to England through my flat purchase, academic day job, and my work with Proto-type, I decided that I am both British and American. I make work here that responds to and reflects onto contemporary British society, so call me ‘chap’ now instead of ‘dude’. At least for now…

My reflections on national identity are also related to Third Person: Bonnie & Clyde (Redux), which will be in this year’s showcase.

In the piece, we use the story of Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow – bank robbers in the early part of the 20th century – as a way to explore why we love (some) people who kill and how our identities on stage relate to our identities in the ‘real world’.

Bonnie and Clyde were, in many ways, responding to the economic circumstances of living in dust bowl America: it is possible that their violent actions were really a reaction to the tightening noose of an America that was struggling to integrate under one common set of ideologies.

Although their story is only part of what the show is about, I am sometimes struck in rehearsals by how much the show relates to England in 2011: economic uncertainty, immigration concerns, banks with too much power…

The more things change, the more they stay the same it seems.

So as an American and a Brit, I am intrigued to see how the tangles of politics, romance, and history that we weave together in Third Person will be received by delegates from other cultures.

What parallels will they find? What debates will the show spark? What unanswered questions will it raise?

I don’t know how it will end up, but I am looking forward to being there for the conversation.

Proto-type Theater – Third Person: Bonnie & Clyde (Redux)

Proto-type Theater are one of 27 participating companies in the Edinburgh Showcase, a biennial platform of contemporary UK performance featuring some of the most outstanding small and middle-scale touring productions made in the UK and selected by the British Council from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Third Person: Bonnie & Clyde (Redux)

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